Senior UX Researcher, AI Strategy & Insights

The Wrap; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 208,000 - 256,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity (RSUs)

Competitive base pay

Job summary

Gusto is seeking a UX Researcher at Senior Staff level to shape product bets with rigorous evidence. You will partner with senior leadership to clarify ambiguous decisions and guide AI-enabled experiences.

You’ll help define quantitative methods, scale usability research, and mentor others while collaborating with Data Science and Design. This hybrid role is based in our New York or San Francisco offices with regular in-office days.

Qualifications

• You have 8+ years of experience leading quantitative UX research, with a proven track record at the executive level.
• Expertise in survey design, sampling, pricing research, and validated measurement scales.
• Proficient in SQL and Python; experienced with Qualtrics and AI/LLM evaluation methods.

Responsibilities

• Set and drive a quantitative research roadmap across R&D to reduce risk on product bets.
• Develop psychometric frameworks and validated scales to measure AI experiences.
• Lead org-wide survey strategy and design rigorous studies to minimize bias.
• Collaborate with Data Science to fuse behavioral and sentiment data into customer stories.
• Maintain segmentation of ideal customer profiles as the business evolves.
• Create scalable usability benchmarks and competitive comparisons for decision making.
• Mentor researchers and advance AI-native research practices across the org.

Skills

Quantitative UX research

Survey science

Statistical modeling

Psychometrics

SQL

Python

Qualtrics

AI/LLM evaluation

Usability research at scale

Mentoring researchers

Tools

Claude Code

Gumloop

Job description

About Gusto

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff — payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR — so owners can focus on their craft and their customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we support more than 500,000 small businesses nationwide and are building a workplace that reflects the people we serve.

All full-time employees receive competitive base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs) — because everyone who helps build Gusto should share in its success. Offer amounts are determined by role, level, and location. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.

AI is a fundamental part of how work gets done at Gusto. We expect all team members to actively engage with AI tools relevant to their role and grow their fluency as the technology evolves. AI experience requirements vary by role and will be assessed during the interview process.

About the Role:

As a UX Researcher on the team, your work will directly inform the bets Gusto makes on future product investments. You will partner with senior leadership, including VPs and above, bringing clarity to ambiguous, high-stakes decisions and sharpening our understanding of the customers we serve.

The level of this role is the equivalent of a Senior Staff-level.

Success looks like: a clear-eyed view of where our AI experiences are working or falling short, and senior executives that trust your evidence to guide where Gusto invests next.

About Design at Gusto:

UX Research is part of the Design Organization at Gusto, which is made up of over 70 creative, collaborative people who care deeply about our mission to empower small businesses and their employees. We're a cross-functional bunch focused on Design, Research, Writing, Ops and Front-end Development who are always looking for opportunities to build understanding and empathy for the people who use Gusto. We don't care a whole lot about swim lanes and we work closely with our partners in Product, Engineering, Data, and Marketing to design, build and ship experiences that make a difference. We are passionate advocates for thoughtful, crafted, and inclusive experiences and we believe great design can make hard things possible, even delightful.

About the Research Team:

We’re a small team of researchers embedded within product areas across R&D. Customer learning is highly valued at Gusto and we work to make sure we’re shining the light on customer understanding in the areas it’s needed the most so that critical decisions are backed by evidence. We’ve been experimenting and adopting AI in our research practice, continuing to find ways to use it to accelerate, scale, and raise the quality bar. We believe that builders across Gusto should be able to self-serve on straight-forward research questions and we build tools, resources, and programs to remove barriers to customer learning, whether that’s leveraging the research our team conducts or conducting their own.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Set and drive a quantitative research roadmap across R&D, prioritizing where evidence reduces risk on our biggest product bets.
• Develop psychometric frameworks, validated constructs and scales to measure how customers experience Gusto's AI features.
• Own Gusto's approach to quantitative methods, from evolving our org-wide survey strategy to knowing when to generalize qualitative findings at scale (e.g., MaxDiff, conjoint) and designing rigorous studies that reduce bias.
• Partner closely with Data Science to combine behavioral, attitudinal, and sentiment data into a coherent view of the customer, uncovering the story behind the metrics.
• Build and maintain clear segmentation of Gusto's ideal customer profiles, keeping it current as the business and product evolve.
• Build scaled usability measurement, including large-sample benchmarking and competitive comparisons, to give teams a high-confidence read on experience and break ties between design directions.
• Elevate Gusto's quantitative research practice: mentor other researchers, build shared tools and standards, and advance an AI-native way of working (Claude Code, Gumloop, etc.) that raises the floor across the org.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• You have 8+ years of experience leading quantitative UX research, with a proven track record of influencing strategic product and business decisions at the executive level, and communicating complex findings clearly to senior stakeholders.
• You possess deep expertise in survey science, sampling, pricing research, and statistical modeling, including developing psychometric frameworks and validated measurement scales, along with experience with AI and LLM evaluation methods, logs analysis, and behavioral analysis.
• You are proficient in SQL and Python, and comfortable working hands-on with survey platforms such as Qualtrics.
• You have experience designing and running usability research at scale, from benchmarking studies to tie-breaking evaluations between design variants.
• You have a track record of setting research standards or practices that scale beyond your own projects, across multiple teams or an organization.
• You have extensive experience working on AI-powered products, and genuine curiosity about using AI tools to scale your own research process.
• You have experience enabling and coaching non-researchers to conduct their own research, and enjoy fostering a culture of learning.

Our cash compensation range for this role is $177,000/yr to $218,000/yr in Denver, and $208,000/yr to $256,000/yr in San Francisco and New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.

At Gusto, we don't use titles the traditional way, as a signal of rank or hierarchy. Instead, our titles describe two things at once — your craft (what you do, e.g. Engineering, Design) and your scope of ownership (what you're accountable for) — which is why you'll see something like "Head of X" instead of a rank word like "Director" that tells you neither. Because of this, the title on this posting may look different from what you'd expect based on the scope and seniority of the role, and from how similar roles are typically titled elsewhere. If you have questions about how this role compares to your current title or level, your recruiter can help translate.

Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City. Employees who are based in those locations will be expected to work from the office on designated days approximately 2-3 days per week (or more depending on role). The same office expectations apply to all Symmetry roles, Gusto's subsidiary, whose physical office is in Scottsdale.

Note: The San Francisco office expectations encompass both the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas.

When approved to work from a location other than a Gusto office, a secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection is required. This includes non-office days for hybrid employees.

Reliable, consistent presence: We expect regular and predictable attendance, whether you're working in-office, hybrid, or fully remote, so that you stay closely connected to your team, customers, and stakeholders in real time and ensure colleagues and customers receive the timely support and responsiveness they deserve.

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home at Gusto.

Gusto is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Gusto considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Gusto is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. We want to see our candidates perform to the best of their ability. If you require a medical or religious accommodation at any time throughout your candidate journey, please fill out this form and a member of our team will get in touch with you.

Gusto takes security and protection of your personal information very seriously. Please review our Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer.

Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice.